It has been a long and difficult four years for Hoboken. At the very start, the Zimmer Team, which I am proud to be a part of, inherited a City under state fiscal supervision with a budget overspent by over $12 million and a failing hospital losing $1 million a month, secured by a $52 million taxpayer guarantee. In our first two years, we rebuilt the City’s finances, saved our hospital and dealt with massive waterfront infrastructure issues. Focusing on finances and infrastructure, we have put Hoboken back on track. As the economy improved, we set the tone on balanced development. New construction provides for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED technology) and sustainability, and as well call for larger more accommodating housing stock so growing families can afford to stay in Hoboken. We evaluated and completed phase 1 on flood mitigation (high speed pump), paved more streets, improved pedestrian safety and stabilized our City with federal support through one of the worst natural disasters of our time - Sandy.

The Zimmer Team accepted unprecedented challenges, delivered on campaign promises and succeeded with honesty, integrity and trust. These successes didn’t occur with financial gimmicks. To the contrary, they occurred while lowering the municipal portion of our property taxes and preserving a financial surplus (rainy day fund) to protect us from future economic downturns and disasters. Our ongoing goals will always be to focus on taxes and the City’s finances, while pushing to make necessary capital investments such as Washington, Sinatra and Observer Highway Streets and their redesign to improve traffic flows, local business economy, and additional park acquisition with large storm water retention basins to mitigate flooding.

There is a tremendous amount at stake over the next four years with an improved economy and development at the core. We have worked far too hard to restore integrity to city hall - let us not turn back the clock. Our hard work has resulted in many quality of life successes such as park purchases, park build outs (1600 Park) and park upgrades citywide which proves the Zimmer Team serves all the people of Hoboken and not special interests, and with your support will continue to lead Hoboken forward. I urge you to support the Zimmer Team and Kids First on November 5th. Do your due diligence on the issues and successes, and you will find that the only choice for Hoboken is to support Mayor Zimmer and her Team of Councilmen Ravi Bhalla and David Mello and candidate Jim Doyle, and Kids First of Leon Gold, Irene Sobolov and Jennifer Evans.